Matt contacted me for a piece he was writing for the travel section. The New York Times chose İstanbul as a foodie destination for 2008 and he wanted to know more about the recent food trends in İstanbul, restaurants, and what has changed since his former visit to İstanbul and volunteer work at an apple orchard in Gallipoli.

All from my most favorite restaurant in İstanbul: Çiya. Musa Dağdeviren, chefowner, first opened Çiya as a kebab restaurant in 1987. A year later, Çiya Sofrası (serving the above Anatolian dishes) opened its doors 10 meters down the street.

The Çiya Experience

When you enter Çiya, you see the delicious salad bar on your right and the main dishes (menu changes daily) on your left. For a few minutes, you can’t move. You breathe in the heavenly smells and after the first shock wave, you start examining the main dishes.

Then, you start asking questions to the chef behind the dishes, because 80% of the time you have no clue as to what’s going on in those pots – even if you’re Turkish. The chef starts to mention the names of all the vegetables that you’ve never heard of and you just nod and pick a few, feeling confident because you know you can never go wrong. Oh, and if there is meatballs with sour cherries on the menu that day, you pick that one too.

Then you approach the salad bar and start stuffing your plate until you can’t see the plate anymore. After that, you sit down and while waiting the main dishes to arrive, you order a lahmacun (or two) from Çiya Kebab next door.

When the feast finishes, you feel stuffed. But that is just your stomach playing a trick on you. You’re not done – at all. A meal at Çiya is never complete without a dessert.

You order Kerebiç – a doughy dessert filled with pistachios and served with a foam that is extracted from the root of a tree that grows in Antakya. The foam aids digestion, and as I told Matt, after eating Kerebiç, you feel like you can eat the whole restaurant again!

If you ever plan to visit İstanbul, make sure Çiya is on your itinerary. You’ll thank me later (afew people already did).

I asked this question to my husband yesterday and he had to think about it. He is still thinking about it.
I love stuffed red peppers. I wouldn’t think of it as my last meal, but I understand why you chose them. How do they dry the eggplant?

Thanks Hillary! It was interesting to read other people’s last meals 🙂

Naz – Thanks!

Sonali – Sorry!

Anja – As far as I know you first soak them in warm water and soften them. Then you make a filling with ground meat, rice, spices and fill them up. Then you transfer them to a pot and pour in a bit of water and cook on low heat until fully cooked (once the rice is done you are finished).

Two of my friends have been nagging me for a loooong time about Ciya saying “how come you haven’t been there, yet” or “you have eat nothing until you eat at Ciya” 🙂 And after your nagging ( 😉 ) I think I should definetely pay a visit to Ciya next time I’m there. Ohh, how am I supposed to wait now??

wow! those kebabs look too inviting man! its nice to know you are pretty sure about your last meal! I have so many favorites I’m not sure if I could pick one thing!! maybe I’d need something like “last one month of food”:)

Nice post!

21 - bakingfairy on
December 12th, 2007

and I am just sooo lucky to have this dinner already with you! I guess my life is complete! I miss you soooo much!

After an extensive RTW backpacking trip 8 or so years ago, I cam home declaring that Turkey had my favorite food. I’m glad to see that nothing has changed!
Excellent blog, BTW. I’ll be sticking around.

Wow. What a great question. At the same time very difficult to answer. For me at least. Your last meal looks great. I’ve never tasted such combinations and hopefully, when I get to Istanbul someday, I’d get to have this as my last meal.

Cenk ~ It is wonderful that you were consulted for a piece in the New York Times, a great newspaper in general, though I must say their food section isn’t as good as the Los Angeles Times (I understand, though, that you were interviewed for their travel section). I have long wanted to travel to Turkey.

I adore kisir, and I’m glad that you included it as part of your “last meal”.

I ate at Çiya last year and had the zahter salad. Ever since, I’ve wondered whether there is a way that I can make a similar salad here in the US. Do you know whether it’s possible? I couldn’t quite figure out what the main ingredient was…maybe fresh thyme? Would I need zahter powder? I do have a bottle of nar ekşisi…any thoughts you have on how I might reproduce this salad would be much appreciated!

Cenk, because of what you wrote about Ciya I scheduled a day to explore Kadikoy and eat there. It was unforgettable , thanks very much, and if you have time to visit my blog you’ll find I couldn’t stop raving about Ciya too.

35 - Lorin on
April 3rd, 2008

Being married to a Turk, I thought I’ve tried everything Turkish cuisine had to offer. You’ve proven me wrong… Amazingly enough, my husband is in Istanbul now and I will recommend a trip to Ciya this weekend. Perhaps he can enjoy these lovely dishes for me. Now, I can’t wait for our annual family trip to Istanbul-Izmir-Bodrum this summer!

36 - malvestita on
July 9th, 2008

Cenk, your food blog is fabulous, I’m glad the SFGate introduced me to it. However I should like to point out that kerebic, or properly karabij halab, is as Syrian as Antakya itself.

37 - Kamren on
August 21st, 2008

Just discovered your website with those wonderful recipes. However, there seems to be problem with some of the text at your website. Some of the text does not seem to “translate”. For example, the name of this restaurant that you mentioned was not understandable: Çiya. What is the correct spelling of this name? I would be interested in going there when I visit Istanbul. There are other such instances where I can not understand what is being written. Is there some way to fix and correct these occurrences that are there now and to prevent them from occurring in the future? Thank you.

Hi Kamren – Thank you! Yes, I am aware of that problem. It happened when I upgraded to a newer version WordPress (publishing program). I am still trying to fix it. Hopefully, everything will look normal soon. The restaurant’s name is Ciya (pronounced chi-ya). Hope you enjoy eating there. Cheers!

39 - Nicole on
March 31st, 2009

Hi from Sydney!! I found your website tonight and I have been scribbling recipes down all night. I can’t wait to start cooking your recipes. I have to tell you that I am enjoying your website soooo much!! Thank you for sharing and I look forward to tasting many of your recipes. Cheers 🙂 Nicole

Hey – thanks so much for this post and blog. I am visiting Istanbul in January with my wife and have been doing a little bit of research around where we can eat. No doubt about it – Ciya is top of my list, thanks to your post. Can’t wait to get stuck into the Turkish food and Istanbul vibe. Happy holidays!

Dear Fernando, While doing resarch for my visit to Istanbul I found your website and this recommendation for Chia.
I immediately decided that we had to visit Chia Sofrasi and so we did 3 days ago.
It has been absolutely the best lunch of our stay
in Istanbul!
We had a mixed plate from salad bar, mixed plate of main dishes and Kerebich – everything was delicious and totaly eyeopening to me! With the bill they treated us with two small glasses of spinach juice (Do you maybe know a recipe for it? :).
Thanks for the recommendation!

Such a pleasure to find this article since i just sent you an email regarding my solo lunch at Ciya Sofrasi in 2007 … i was overwhelmed with the selections too and i just tried a little of everything 🙂

Hi Cenk! I found this old posting and really enjoyed reading it. Totally agree with you on Ciya… The problem is I live far away from Turkey and now craving for Ciya food, it will be difficult to wait until December for my next visit 🙂

Regarding desserts, in addition to kerebic I love their walnut dessert too…

This is so wonderful. I am so excited about my first visit to Istanbu and will definitely visit Ciya. I can’t wait. I love your website and will hope to contact you in the future for research for a possible TV programme we may film in Turkey.
If you can think of any other places we can go if you have time I would appreciate it. I loved your article on Chez Pannisse and their 40th anniversary. Thank you.

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